What does instance variable that looks like this @my_variable inside a self.method mean?

I dont understand what an instance variable inside a class method does. Below code makes no sense to me. How can a class method manipulate an instance variable? I can call a class method without even having an instance.

In short, these instance variables belong to the class, not the instances of that class.

To understand it, you need to know more about Ruby.

Classes are objects

In Ruby, all the classes are just objects of type Class.

String.class #=> Class
Array.class #=> Class
Class.class #=> Class

And you can define anonymous classes by instantiating Class

foo = Class.new do
# Here you can define methods
end
foo.new #=> an instance of an anonymous class

Because classes are objects, they can have instance variables too.

Gate of scopes

There are 4 keywords that triggers scope switching: module, class, def and do (for blocks). Here I only show the class and def.

# in the scope of main
class Foo
# in the scope of Foo
def self.bar
# still in the scope of Foo
end
# in the scope of Foo
def bar
# in the scope of an instance of Foo
end
# back to the scope of Foo again
end
# back to the scope of main

The instance variables defined in a scope belongs to the current object (a.k.a. self) of that scope. In the previous example, if you define a instance variable in the scope of Foo, that instance variable belongs to the self of that scope, which is the class Foo.